Post #5

The article I read was “Caring for an Autistic Adult” by Marjorie Ingall published in Women’s Day magazine http://www.womansday.com/life/personal-stories/autistic-adults. The article is about having an autistic son, which has taught his mom the value of strength, denotation and a sense of humor. From the day he was born they knew he was different because he was reading the encyclopedia at age 3 and incredible with numbers. At age 4 Alex was diagnosed with autism. Pam was told to “focus on Alex strengths, not his weakness because his strengths are what will take him places”. While in school Alex memorized lists of prime numbers and almost 1,500 digits of pi, but he spoke in two word sentences for years and wasn’t toilet trained until 13. His behavior during classes was disruptive and was restrained when he would wonder around the room so they decided to home school Alex. Autism isn’t predictable and his anxiety levels grew. Alex medication didn’t help and he lashed out and attacked his father three times. They had no choice but to admit him into a psychiatric ward.  If Alex needed to stay in a long term facility it would cost $250,000 a year but fought with their insurance companies and couldn’t afford it.  They ended up finding a state funded day program that they were qualified for and she says it feels like she is sending her child off to college. They are now moving forward in there life’s again.

I thought this article was very good. I learned more about autism and thought it was sad what the family had to go through with their son. Especially, when the dad was attacked by their son and had to be put in a psychiatric ward that would be really hard on the family. Since you never know what a kid will do with autism you have to keep your eyes open at all times. My friend has a brother that has autism and was in the same position as this family. In the article it said autism causes tensions in the family but this one they became even closer which I thought was very beneficial for the family.  One day he would be very giggly and joking around, then the next day he could be screaming and having behavior problems.